ARTICLES ABOUT EAGLES BY DATE - PAGE 5

Starting right tackle Lane Johnson is expected to miss the first quarter of the season for the Eagles due to positive drug test, joining already suspended special teams standout Jake Knott. Although these roster restrictions are not the ideal way to begin training camp later this month, it's not as if the team can't come out the other end of this unscathed. The steps coach Chip Kelly and general manager Howie Roseman took this offseason to produce better roster balance are what gives them the best chance.

Consider the pot officially stirred. Pete Prisco of cbssports.com has come out with a list of the NFL's most overrated and underrated performers, and Eagles quarterback Nick Foles makes it as his team's most overrated player. Prisco writes: "Let's slow the train down some, OK. He did some good things last season, but you'd think he was a star already. It takes time. Let's see him do it again. Not saying he can't, but let's see it again. " His analysis again brings up the difference between the national perception of the Eagles versus the local one. What he wrote was exactly the way most feel in Philadelphia, including his head coach and general manager.

Free agent quarterback Kevin Kolb was arrested and charged with boating while intoxicated over the weekend in South Texas, according to multiple reports. Kolb was arrested on Saturday and released on $3,000 bond, with the story originally reported by 956sports.com and confirmed through the Willacy County Sheriff's office. Kolb, 29, missed all of last season following a concussion suffered during training camp and was released by the Bills in March after failing a physical. Kolb spent his first four NFL seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles before signing a five-year, $64 million deal with the Arizona Cardinals in 2011.

- Press coverage, zero blitzes, more risks, more rewards. We didn't see a whole lot of that from the Philadelphia Eagles defense last season, which began with new head coach Chip Kelly giving new defensive coordinator Billy Davis just one basic directive for his unit: Don't let them throw it over your heads. Although that mantra will still be in play throughout the 2014 season, we also can expect to see a little more aggressiveness in the defensive play calling in certain situations due to the returning players having a better grasp of the system and the upgrades that were made to the secondary in the offseason.

The Philadelphia Eagles will practice at Franklin Field, one of three practices open to the public, during training camp, which begins July 25. The Eagles announced their training camp schedule Wednesday, noting that the Aug. 10 practice will be held at Franklin Field, the Birds' home field from 1958-70 when Veterans Stadium opened. The other two open practices will be held at Lincoln Financial Field July 28 and August 3. All open practices are free of charge, but unlike last year, the two practices at Lincoln Financial Field will not require a ticket for entry.

Since the football team represents Washington, D.C., I think it should be called the Washington Weasels. After all, where in the USA are there more double-talking, sneaky, underhanded weasels? Weasels who butt in on things they neither understand nor should think about, given that we as a nation are deeply in debt and have other real problems to worry about. So, for me, it is Weasels. I hope the Eagles beat them this season. That'll show those weasels. Charles Erb South Whitehall Township

- Until last year's offensive success can be duplicated or improved upon, everything will continue to come back to DeSean Jackson and the intoxicating speed and almost undefinable fourth vertical dimension be brought to the Philadelphia Eagles in 2013. Months after a rookie coach took what had been a dysfunctional offense and set in motion the process that enabled Jackson and running back LeSean McCoy to have their finest seasons and second-year quarterback Nick Foles to have one of the greatest seasons in NFL history, the same coach, Chip Kelly, made a bold statement: The Philadelphia Eagles will be better off in the long run without the player who might have provided the most important skill set for opening everything up. Agree or disagree, it doesn't matter.

- Unveiling the plan for Darren Sproles will be something to watch this summer, starting on July 25, when the Philadelphia Eagles are due to report to the NovaCare Complex for the start of training camp. Voluntary minicamp ended on Thursday with a bit of a mystery surrounding the new running back, acquired in an offseason trade with New Orleans. Sproles, who has evolved as more of a receiver than a runner in his 10-year career, in fact was advertised by coach Chip Kelly in May as one of the many pass-catching weapons who will help compensate for the loss of enormously productive wide receiver DeSean Jackson.

Starting defensive end Jason Babin has been released by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Babin played 21 games over one-plus seasons in Jacksonville after being released by Philadelphia in the middle of the 2012 season. Babin opted out of his contract in the offseason and was re-signed for $7.28 million over three seasons. Babin, 34, led the Jaguars with 7.5 sacks last season and has 62.5 in his career as a well-traveled, high-energy edge rusher. While some consider him a one-trick pony at this stage of his career, he could find work with a team in need of edge players such as Atlanta.

- For the first time, Alex Henery faces competition for his roster spot. That doesn't mean he's going anywhere, however. Henery still has a leg up, pun intended, over rookie Carey "Murderleg" Spear for the Philadelphia Eagles' placekicking job this year. Unless, of course, the Eagles decide to keep two, which is not unprecedented in the NFL but certainly not advisable unless a team has quality depth at every position - a virtual impossibility with today's roster restrictions. So it comes down to a battle for one spot, a competition in which Henery will be tough to beat, given his resume and the fact that Spear hasn't done anything yet to make the job his. Spear's nickname, in fact, actually was derived from the way he would often pummel returners while in college at Vanderbilt, not for his leg strength.